07 Mar 2021

 The Minister of Basic Education, Mr Fidelis Molao, has congratulated pupils who sat for the 2020 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) examinations. 

Delivering a statement to Parliament last week, Mr Molao said the class of 2020 had done relatively well, despite having had to endure the difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic during the final year of their formal schooling. 

Mr Molao thanked stakeholders, including the learners, teachers and parents for working hard to overcome extraordinary circumstances to deliver the results. 

The minister made special mention of Tumisang Nkwe, a best performing pupil from St Joseph's College, who got straight A star passes in all 11 subjects he wrote. This was the best ever performance since BGCSE was introduced in 1999. 

Mr Molao also lauded the best performing schools, the top five being Masunga Secondary School, St Joseph's College, Naledi Secondary School, Mater Spei College and Selebi Phikwe Secondary School. 

The minister told Parliament that a total of 36 557 candidates wrote the 2020 examination, a minor increase in candidature compared to the 2019 cohort of 36 508. 

While overall performance had declined slightly by 1.25 per cent, but the proportion of candidates obtaining the credit grades, C or better, improved slightly, being at 21.17 per cent compared to 20.95 per cent in 2019, Mr Molao stated. 

In their responses, Leader of the Opposition, Maun West Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Dumelang Saleshando and Tonota legislator, Mr Pono Moatlhodi both lamented that the pass rate for grades C or better was well below 50 per cent. ends